My Pages On Different Subjects which Hyperlinked to all my Blog Posts

Sunday, 14 September 2014

Extinct
squirrel-like creatures from China suggest the earliest mammals originated more
than 200 million years ago, much earlier than often previously thought, researchers
say.The fossils were discovered in the last three years by private collectors
and amateur paleontologists in a Liaoning province cornfield in northeastern
China. Liaoning has become famous for the trove of feathered dinosaurs and
winged reptiles known as pterosaurs unearthed there over the last decade. The
province is also known for a fossil of a baby dinosaur inside a mammal's gut,
the first direct proof that mammals dined on dinosaurs.

The
newfound fossils are about 160 million years old, dating back to the Triassic
Period. Back then, the area was a warm, wet forest populated by dinosaurs,
mammals and pterosaurs, all living on thelost supercontinent Laurasia, which
once included what are today's northern continents

Common
ancestor evolved over 200 million years ago. Modern mammals’ ancestors may have
emerged millions of years earlier than scientists suspected — around the time
the first dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

The
fossilized remains of six little tree-dwelling animals push the lineage of
today’s mammals back to the Late Triassic, more than 200 million years ago,
researchers report September 10 in Nature.

“That’s
really, really old,” says paleontologist Robert Asher of the University of
Cambridge, who was not involved with the work. Scientists had thought that the
common ancestor of those animals originated sometime in the Jurassic, he says.
“This is very exciting stuff.” The six well-preserved fossil specimens are from
three different extinct species. The animals ranged in size from 1 to 10 ounces,
or from "a house mouse to a small squirrel," said study co-author Jin
Meng, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Their teeth suggest "they were most likely omnivorous, eating insects,
nuts and fruits," he said.The largest of the three species is named
Shenshou lui, with "shenshou" meaning "divine beast" in
Chinese and "lui" referring to the collector of the specimen, Lu
Jianhua. The other two species are named Xianshou songae and Xianshou linglong,
with "xianshou" meaning "celestial beast" in Chinese,
"songae" referring to Rufeng Song, the collector of the specimen, and
"linglong" meaning "exquisite" in Chinese and also
referring to the town of Linglongta, where the specimen came from.Judging from
their slender builds, long tails, hands and feet adapted for grasping and
climbing, and enlarged incisor teeth, these animals would have been
tree-dwellers that looked similar to squirrels. However, "don't confuse
these new animals with any living species," Meng said. Any similarities
between these creatures and squirrels are due to convergent evolution, just as
fish and dolphins both have streamlined bodies to better swim in the water but
are only distantly related

2) First
map of Rosetta's comet:

Scientists
have found that the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko -- the target of
study for the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission -- can be divided into
several regions, each characterized by different classes of features.
High-resolution images of the comet reveal a unique, multifaceted world.ESA's
Rosetta spacecraft arrived at its destination about a month ago and is
currently accompanying the comet as it progresses on its route toward the inner
solar system. Scientists have analyzed images of the comet's surface taken by
OSIRIS, Rosetta's scientific imaging system, and defined several different
regions, each of which has a distinctive physical appearance. This analysis
provides the basis for a detailed scientific description of 67P's surface. A
map showing the comet's various regions is available at:
http://go.nasa.gov/1pU26L2

"Never
before have we seen a cometary surface in such detail," says OSIRIS
Principal Investigator Holger Sierks from the Max Planck Institute for Solar
System Science (MPS) in Germany. In some of the images, one pixel corresponds
to a scale of 30 inches (75 centimeters) on the nucleus. "It is a historic
moment -- we have an unprecedented resolution to map a comet," he says.The
comet has areas dominated by cliffs, depressions, craters, boulders and even
parallel grooves. While some of these areas appear to be quiet, others seem to
be shaped by the comet's activity, in which grains emitted from below the
surface fall back to the ground in the nearby area."This first map is, of
course, only the beginning of our work," says Sierks. "At this point,
nobody truly understands how the surface variations we are currently witnessing
came to be."As both comet 67P and Rosetta travel closer to the sun during
the next few months, the OSIRIS team and other instruments on the payload will
monitor the surface to look for changes. While scientists do not expect the
borderlines they have identified for the comet's different regions to vary
dramatically, even subtle transformations of the surface may help to explain how
cometary activity created such a breathtaking world.

The new
comet maps will offer valuable insights for members of the Rosetta team, who
plan to gather in Toulouse, France, on September 13 and 14, to determine a
primary and backup landing site from five candidates they previously had
selected.

The
scientific imaging system, OSIRIS, was built by a consortium led by the Max
Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Germany) in collaboration with
Center of Studies and Activities for Space, University of Padua (Italy), the
Astrophysical Laboratory of Marseille (France), the Institute of Astrophysics
of Andalusia, CSIC (Spain), the Scientific Support Office of the European Space
Agency (Netherlands), the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (Spain), the
Technical University of Madrid (Spain), the Department of Physics and Astronomy
of Uppsala University (Sweden) and the Institute of Computer and Network
Engineering of the TU Braunschweig (Germany). OSIRIS was financially supported
by the national funding agencies of Germany (DLR), France (CNES), Italy (ASI),
Spain, and Sweden and the ESA Technical Directorate.Rosetta is an ESA mission
with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is
provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI. Rosetta will be the
first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet, escort it as it orbits the
sun, and deploy a lander to its surface.

The
partnership may explain why vaccines provide less protection for people living in
certain places, such as rural parts of developing countries, says lead author
Bali Pulendran, an immunologist at Emory University. The composition of gut
microbes in people from those locations differs from the mix found in
individuals from urban, developed areas, he says.

In 2011,
Pulendran’s laboratory made a puzzling discovery involving seasonal influenza
vaccination in humans: The vaccine instructed blood cells to produce a protein
called TLR5 that normally protects the body from bacteria, not viruses.

The new
study argues that bacteria influence vaccine-based immunity, at least in mice.
The team found that rodents engineered to lack TLR5 protein make fewer
flu-fighting antibodies after immunization than normal mice.

Mice
reared to lack microbes, or rodents given antibiotics, also had a muffled
antibody response after receiving the flu vaccine. The team found the same
pattern with a vaccine for polio.

TLR5
protein recognizes bacteria with propulsive tails made from the protein
flagellin. Only bacteria with flagellin fortify mouse immunity to flu after
vaccination, the researchers found.Gut microbes could affect vaccine potency in
people, Pulendran says, though only further human studies could prove that.

4)
Unraveling mysteries of the Venusian atmosphere:

Underscoring
the vast differences between Earth and its neighbor Venus, new research shows a
glimpse of giant holes in the electrically charged layer of the Venusian
atmosphere, called the ionosphere. The observations point to a more complicated
magnetic environment than previously thought -- which in turn helps us better
understand this neighboring, rocky planet.

Planet
Venus, with its thick atmosphere made of carbon dioxide, its parched surface,
and pressures so high that landers are crushed within a few hours, offers
scientists a chance to study a planet very foreign to our own. These mysterious
holes provide additional clues to understanding Venus's atmosphere, how the
planet interacts with the constant onslaught of solar wind from the sun, and
perhaps even what's lurking deep in its core."This work all started with a
mystery from 1978," said Glyn Collinson, a space scientist at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is first author of a
paper on this work in the Journal of Geophysical Research. "When Pioneer Venus
Orbiter moved into orbit around Venus, it noticed something very, very weird --
a hole in the planet's ionosphere. It was a region where the density just
dropped out, and no one has seen another one of these things for 30
years."Until now.

Collinson
set out to search for signatures of these holes in data from the European Space
Agency's Venus Express. Venus Express, launched in 2006, is currently in a
24-hour orbit around the poles of Venus. This orbit places it in much higher
altitudes than that of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter, so Collinson wasn't sure
whether he'd spot any markers of these mysterious holes. But even at those
heights the same holes were spotted, thus showing that the holes extended much
further into the atmosphere than had been previously known.The observations
also suggested the holes are more common than realized. Pioneer Venus Orbiter
only saw the holes at a time of great solar activity, known as solar maximum.
The Venus Express data, however, shows the holes can form during solar minimum
as well.

Interpreting
what is happening in Venus's ionosphere requires understanding how Venus
interacts with its environment in space. This environment is dominated by a
stream of electrons and protons -- a charged, heated gas called plasma -- which
zoom out from the sun. As this solar wind travels it carries along embedded
magnetic fields, which can affect charged particles and other magnetic fields
they encounter along the way. Earth is largely protected from this radiation by
its own strong magnetic field, but Venus has no such protection.What Venus does
have, however, is an ionosphere, a layer of the atmosphere filled with charged
particles. The Venusian ionosphere is bombarded on the sun-side of the planet
by the solar wind. Consequently, the ionosphere, like air flowing past a golf
ball in flight, is shaped to be a thin boundary in front of the planet and to
extend into a long comet-like tail behind. As the solar wind plows into the
ionosphere, it piles up like a big plasma traffic jam, creating a thin
magnetosphere around Venus -- a much smaller magnetic environment than the one
around Earth.Venus Express is equipped to measure this slight magnetic field.
As it flew through the ionospheric holes it recorded a jump in the field
strength, while also spotting very cold particles flowing in and out of the
holes, though at a much lower density than generally seen in the ionosphere.
The Venus Express observations suggest that instead of two holes behind Venus,
there are in fact two long, fat cylinders of lower density material stretching
from the planet's surface to way out in space. Collinson said that some
magnetic structure probably causes the charged particles to be squeezed out of
these areas, like toothpaste squeezed out of a tube.

The next
question is what magnetic structure can create this effect? Imagine Venus
standing in the middle of the constant solar wind like a lighthouse erected in
the water just off shore. Magnetic field lines from the sun move toward Venus
like waves of water approaching the lighthouse. The far sides of these lines
then wrap around the planet leading to two long straight magnetic field lines
trailing out directly behind Venus. These lines could create the magnetic
forces to squeeze the plasma out of the holes.

But such
a scenario would place the bottom of these tubes on the sides of the planet,
not as if they were coming straight up out of the surface. What could cause
magnetic fields to go directly in and out of the planet? Without additional
data, it's hard to know for sure, but Collinson's team devised two possible
models that can match these observations.

In one
scenario, the magnetic fields do not stop at the edge of the ionosphere to wrap
around the outside of the planet, but instead continue further.

"We
think some of these field lines can sink right through the ionosphere, cutting
through it like cheese wire," said Collinson. "The ionosphere can
conduct electricity, which makes it basically transparent to the field lines.
The lines go right through down to the planet's surface and some ways into the
planet."In this scenario, the magnetic field travels unhindered directly
into the upper layers of Venus. Eventually, the magnetic field hits Venus'
rocky mantle -- assuming, of course, that the inside of Venus is like the inside
of Earth. A reasonable assumption given that the two planets are the same mass,
size and density, but by no means a proven fact.A similar phenomenon does
happen on the moon, said Collinson. The moon is mostly made up of mantle and
has little to no atmosphere. The magnetic field lines from the sun go through
the moon's mantle and then hit what is thought to be an iron core.In the second
scenario, the magnetic fields from the solar system do drape themselves around
the ionosphere, but they collide with a pile up of plasma already at the back
of the planet. As the two sets of charged material jostle for place, it causes
the required magnetic squeeze in the perfect spot.Either way, areas of
increased magnetism would stream out on either side of the tail, pointing
directly in and out of the sides of the planet. Those areas of increased
magnetic force could be what squeezes out the plasma and creates these long
ionospheric holes.

5) How
bacteria battle fluoride:

He's not
a dentist, but Christopher Miller is focused on fluoride. Two studies from his
Brandeis University lab provide new insights into the mechanisms that allow
bacteria to resist fluoride toxicity, information that could eventually help
inform new strategies for treating harmful bacterial diseases. The studies
appear in The Journal of General Physiology (JGP).

Although
most animal cells are protected from direct exposure to fluoride, this toxic
element is a serious threat to single-celled organisms like bacteria and yeast.
As a result, their plasma membranes carry two different types of proteins to
help rid the cell of unwanted fluoride: fluoride/hydrogen antiporters use
energy to actively pump fluoride "uphill" out of the cell; and
fluoride-specific "Fluc" ion channels mediate the passive
"downhill" movement of fluoride across the cell membrane.

Fluc
channels were first identified by Miller and colleagues very recently, in 2013.
In the September issue of JGP, they now provide the first quantitative data
demonstrating how these passive channels can help protect bacteria from
fluoride. The authors found that fluoride accumulates in E. coli lacking Fluc
when the external environment is acidic. In such acidic environments, fluoride
enters the cell in the form of HF (hydrofluoric acid) -- which easily permeates
the membrane -- and breaks down in the cell's lower acidity; Fluc provides a
means of escape for the highly charged fluoride ions. They also found that
bacteria proliferation was stalled by high fluoride exposure, indicating that
targeting Fluc channels with antibiotics could be an effective way to slow
bacterial growth.

In the
August issue of JGP, Miller and colleagues unearthed new information about
fluoride/hydrogen antiporters -- also recently discovered -- which are part of
the CLC superfamily of proteins that are known for exporting chloride. The
authors explored why this subset demonstrates higher selectivity for fluoride
-- which is essential for their function because chloride is so much more
abundant in the environment -- and were able to determine key structural
differences that could account for the preferential selectivity of fluoride.

6) Two new
species of carabid beetles found in Ethiopia:

There are
more than 150 species of beetles in the genus Calathus, 17 of which have only
been found in the mountains of the Ethiopian Highlands. Now scientists have
found two new ones -- Calathus juan and Calathus carballalae -- and have
described them in Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

C. juan is named for Juan Novoa, the son of
one of the authors, in recognition of his help on various beetle-collecting
expeditions. Adults are black and shiny, and are 9.5-11.5 millimeters long. It
was found under stones at the base of giant, tree-like plants called lobelias
(Lobelia rhynchopetalum) at almost 3,600 meters above sea level.C. carballalae
is named for Regina Carballal, the wife of the first author, also for
collaboration on Coleoptera-collecting expeditions. It was found under stones
on barren soil nearly 4,150 meters above sea level.

THE DROP
is a new crime drama from Michaël R. Roskam, the Academy Award-nominated
director of BULLHEAD. Based on a screenplay from Dennis Lehane (MYSTIC RIVER,
GONE BABY GONE), THE DROP follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy)
through a covert scheme of funneling cash to local gangsters - "money
drops" - in the underworld of Brooklyn bars. Under the heavy hand of his
employer and cousin Marv (James Gandolfini), Bob finds himself at the center of
a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the
neighborhood's past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make
a living - no matter the cost.

When
ambitious young real estate agent Leigh is asked to sell a house with a
checkered past, she crosses paths with a disturbed girl whom she learns is the
runaway daughter of the couple selling the property. When Leigh tries to
intervene and help her, she becomes entangled with a supernatural force that
soon pulls Leigh's artist sister Vera into its web — and has sinister plans for
both of them.

Finding
Fanny revolves around five rather dysfunctional characters that live in the
quaint sleepy village of Pocolim, nestled deep in the interior of Goa, India.
Pocolim is a village where pointless conversations are a way of life. Nothing
ever really happens here and the people of Pocolim, well, they just exist. One
night, the old postman Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah), receives a letter that is
slipped under his door.

He
realizes that it is the letter he had written 46 years ago to the love of his
life, Stefanie Fernandes (Anjali Patil), asking for her hand in marriage. To
his utter shock, he discovers that it had never been delivered. All these years
Ferdie has lived a life of melancholy and regret, believing that Stefanie had
rejected him. He decides to find his beloved Fanny (as he fondly called her)
and tell her the truth. Where would she be after 46 years? Dead? Happily
married? Would she even remember him? Or is Stefanie Fernandes merely a figment
of Ferdie’s imagination?

Four
colorful characters from the village join the trip under random pretexts,
though in actuality everyone wants a distraction from their mundane lives. A
young virgin widow (Deepika Padukone), a bitter mechanic (Arjun Kapoor), a
belligerent artist (Pankaj Kapur) and an obnoxious self-appointed “Lady” of
Pocolim (Dimple Kapadia) join Ferdie as they experience various hilarious and
moving events that change their lives forever.

Political
News This Week:

1) Over
1,42,000 people rescued in flood-hit J&K so far:

Over
1,42,000 people have been rescued from the flood-ravaged parts of Jammu and
Kashmir so far, as the relief operations launched by the Armed forces entered
the 12th day on Saturday.“Armed Forces and NDRF have so far rescued over
1,42,000 persons from different parts of J&K in the ongoing rescue and
relief operations," a defence spokesperson said.Thirteen tonnes of water
purifying tablets and six water filtration plants with a capacity to filter 1.2
lakh bottles per day has already reached Srinagar, he said.Suction pumps and
other engineering equipment from Vishakhapatnam have also reached the flood
affected area for relief work, he said, adding twelve sewage pumps from Delhi
have also been dispatched to the Valley.

The
spokesman said communication equipment of Department of Telecommunication,
Army, BSNL and some private companies have also been dispatched to restore the
network.Also, thirty generator sets of 3 to 5 KVA capacity have been sent to
Srinagar to provide continuous power supply in relief camps and field
hospitals, he added.Besides these, as many as 8,200 blankets and 1,119 tents
have been provided to the flood victims, he said, adding, 80 medical teams of
the Armed Forces Medical Services are already operating in full swing.Four
field hospitals have been established in Avantipur, Pattan, Anantnag and Old
Airfield where medical aid is being provided to the ailing people, he said,
adding that till now, they have treated more than 22,500 patients.

Military
medical services from Bathinda have also been shifted to Srinagar, he said,
adding that about 10 tonnes of medicines and other health care materials,
including mobile oxygen generation plant, have reached Srinagar from Delhi.More
relief materials, including blankets and tents, water bottles from IRCTC and
food packets, are being airlifted from Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Baroda and
Amritsar, he said.25 tonnes of Indian gram (channa) from NAFED is also being
transported to the flood affected areas, he said.Eighty six transport aircraft
and helicopters of Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps are continuing
their efforts in rescue and relief operations, he said, adding, Army has
deployed around 30,000 troops for rescue and relief operations, of which 21,000
troops are deployed in Srinagar region and 9,000 troops in Jammu region.

Armed
Forces personnel are distributing water bottles and food packets on a large
scale, he said, adding, that till now, more than 4,00,000 litres of water,
1,31,500 food packets and over 800 tonnes cooked food have been airdropped and
distributed in the flood-affected areas.So far, 1,771 sorties were undertaken
by helicopters and aircraft of Armed Forces and 2,371 tonnes of relief
materials airdropped by the Indian Air Force, he said.A total of 224 boats of
Army and 148 NDRF's inflatable boats have also been put into service, he
added.Armed Forces have also established 19 relief camps in Srinagar and Jammu
region.

"In
Srinagar region, camps were established at BB Cantt, Avantipur, Old Airfield,
Sumbal, Chattargam and Jijamata Mandir, where thousands of rescued people are
being sheltered," the spokesperson said.They are also being provided with
food and other basic amenities, he added.To restore the road connectivity, five
task forces of Border Roads Organisation, which include 5,700 personnel, have
been deployed in Srinagar, Rajouri and Akhnoor, he said.As of now, they have
restored the road connectivity from Batote–Kishtwar, Kishtwar-Anantnag and
Jammu-Poonch. On the Jammu-Srinagar highway, BRO personnel have cleared the
road up to KM 172 (Ramsu), he said.Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad said people in flood-hit Kashmir will get free telecom services for a
week on BSNL network, and mobile networks have been substantially or partially
restored in the valley, except Poonch.Of the total 12,306 base transceiver
stations (BTS) or mobile towers in J&K, 6,811 were submerged, he said,
adding that of these the government has restored 1,208.

"People
can talk free for a week on BSNL's network in the flood affected areas. We have
also requested private telecom operators. They have allowed 60 minutes of free
talk time everyday," Prasad said at the press conference marking the first
100 days of in the ministry.He said 8,000 landline connections in the Kashmir
valley have started working and the government has opened 5 free public calling
booths at the airport.On the status of the telecom networks in the valley,
Prasad said: "Except Poonch, mobile services are either substantially or
partially restored in all parts of the valley."

BSNL had
on Friday said telecom services in the flood-hit Kashmir Valley are being
normalised slowly with restoring of around 80 per cent of the affected
network.The state-owned firm said it had restored 92 mobile towers, which were
affected by floods. Overall 473 towers are working in the Valley whereas 934 is
the number for the whole state.Other private players including Airtel,
Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Reliance Communications (RCom) have also
restored their network in various parts of the state.

2) 7 days'
judicial remand for Saradha accused MP Kunal Ghosh:

A city
court on Friday remanded suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh to seven
days' judicial custody after he dramatically recused his lawyer from speaking
for him and then pleaded for either bail or CBI custody to 'assist' the agency
in its Saradha chit fund scam probe.Metropolitan magistrate Arvind Mishra
rejected his prayers and remanded Ghosh to judicial custody till September 18,
as sought by CBI.On being produced before the judge, Ghosh said he wanted to
say something before the court. But the court did not allow it and said as he
had given his lawyer the authority to speak for him, he could not make any
submission unless he withdrew the power given to his counsel.Ghosh immediately
wrote on a piece of paper that he was withdrawing the power given to his
lawyer.

The judge
also directed Ghosh not to speak anything outside the case.Ghosh had created a
flutter on Saturday when he stated in the court that West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee be interviewed by CBI along with Saradha Group chairman Sudipta
Sen and himself.Ghosh told the court that other chit fund companies be also
probed along with Saradha by CBI and that those involved in these should also
be arrested.Taking out a piece of paper, Ghosh said some chit fund companies
were still collecting money from the public. He claimed that chit fund
companies were also sponsoring an event of which former Industries Minister
Partha Chatterjee was the chairman. Chatterjee is now Higher Education
Minister.

When
Ghosh wanted to submit the piece of paper he claimed to have got in the court
lockup from a person but did not name him, the judge refused to accept the
paper.The judge also asked him not to make any statement regarding anything
other than his own case.Ghosh was asked by the court to make a statement before
the Investigating Officer of CBI if he wanted to give any additional
information other than what he has already provided to the investigating
agency.Claiming that he has been in custody for nearly 10 months since November
23 last when he was arrested by the state police, Ghosh submitted he be granted
bail.He claimed he was not involved in any conspiracy or illegal monetary
transaction involving Bengal Media, an arm of Saradha Group, of which he was
the CEO.Ghosh prayed he be granted bail or sent to CBI custody again, claiming
that by being in the agency's custody he could 'assist' it in the investigation
if needed but he should not be sent to judicial custody.

The CBI
counsel submitted that a huge amount of money had been transferred by Saradha
chit fund companies to Bengal Media Ltd after misappropriating public
money.Stating that documents related to this has been collected after
interrogation of Ghosh, the CBI counsel prayed for his judicial custody.After
hearing both the parties, the judge granted seven days' judicial custody of
Ghosh

3)
'Missing' documents produced, trial in Salman case to resume on September 24:

After
repeated adjournments and admonition by the court over missing statements of
witnesses, the trial in the hit-and-run case against actor Salman Khan is set
to resume from September 24 following production of the documents before a
sessions court on Friday.The prosecution informed the court trying the case that
all but one of the 63 original statements of witnesses and case diaries that
had gone missing from the custody of police have been found and placed them
before judge D W Deshpande. The court was told the lone missing statement will
also be traced soon.The trial in the case had hit a roadblock in July when the
court was informed that the original statements of the witnesses had
disappeared. The court was again informed in August that case diaries relating
to the case too were not traceable, inviting reprimand from the judge, who
directed the police to locate the documents at the earliest for the trial to
recommence.

Following
this, Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria ordered a probe and the documents
were found at Bandra police station on August 26.Salman’s lawyer Srikant
Shivade had earlier insisted that under the law trial cannot continue in the
absence of the original statements of the witnesses, while the prosecution had
contended that as per practice in Mumbai courts it can go on with true copies
which were available.

After the
newly-appointed public prosecutor in the case Pradeep Gharat produced the
documents, the judge took it on record and asked the prosecution to proceed
with the examination of witnesses from September 24. So far, 11 witnesses have
deposed in the case.Salman is likely to appear before the court on September
24. Gharat, who has conducted trials in several important cases, including the
multi-crore rupees Telgi fake stamp paper case, was recently appointed special
public prosecutor in the case against Salman Khan and appeared for the first
time on Friday.

4) Agni-1
successfully test-fired:

India
successfully test-fired its indigenously built nuclear capable Agni-I missile,
which has a strike range of 700 kilometre on Thursday, from a test range off
Odisha coast as part of a user trial by the army.

The
surface-to-surface, single-stage missile, powered by solid propellants, was
test-fired from a mobile launcher at about 11.11 hrs from launch pad-4 of the
Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from here, Defence
Research and Development Organisation spokesman Ravi Kumar Gupta
said.Describing the trial as fully successful, Gupta said the ballistic missile
was launched by the Strategic Forces Command of the army as part of a training
exercise. “The entire exercise was conducted in a perfect manner and the trial
was totally successful,” he said.“The DRDO developed medium range ballistic
missile from the production lot was launched as part of regular training
exercise by the armed forces,” said another official.Agni-I missile has a
specialised navigation system which ensures it reaches the target with a high
degree of accuracy and precision. The
missile, which has already been inducted in to Armed Forces has proved its excellent
performance in terms of range, accuracy and lethality.

Weighing
12 tonnes, the 15-metre-long Agni-I, which can carry payloads up to 1000 kg,
has already been inducted into the Indian Army. Agni-I was developed by
advanced systems laboratory, the premier missile development laboratory of the
DRDO in collaboration with Defence Research Development Laboratory and Research
Centre Imarat and integrated by Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad.The last
trial of the Agni-I missile was successfully carried out on April 12, 2014 from
the same base. It was first trial that was launched after sunset.

5)
Bypolls: Voting begins for 3 Lok Sabha, 33 Assembly seats:

Voting
today began on a brisk note for by-elections to three Lok Sabha and 33 Assembly
constituencies spread across ten states, seen as a test for Narendra Modi
Government’s popularity, especially as BJP braces for polls in two states next
month.

Uttar
Pradesh

Amid
elaborate security arrangements, polling was being held in 11 Assembly seats
and one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, where the stakes are high for BJP.
Around nine per cent votes were cast in the first two hours, according to poll
officials.

The
election comes after the saffron party’s near-total sweep of the 80 seats in
Lok Sabha polls just four months ago.

Eleven
Assembly seats felt vacant after 10 BJP MLAs and one of its allies Apna Dal
were elected to the Lok Sabha.

BJP chief
Amit Shah also faces the challenge in UP bypolls as he was credited with the
party’s stupendous success.

LS
bypolls

The three
Lok Sabha bypolls are in Vadodara (Gujarat), Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) and Medak
(Telangana). Among the Assembly seats, nine in Gujarat, four in Rajasthan, two
in West Bengal, five in northeastern states and one each in Chhattisgarh and
Andhra Pradesh are going to polls today.Counting of votes is scheduled for
September 16.

Retaining
Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, vacated by SP supremo Mualayam Singh Yadav who had won
from two LS seats including Azamgarh, is a matter of prestige for his party.
BSP and Congress have not fielded their candidates, leaving a straight contest
between Tej Pratap Singh and BJP’s Shiv Singh Shakya.

The 11
Assembly seats in UP, whose outcome may be a pointer to which way the political
wind is blowing in the run-up to 2017 Assembly polls, are Saharanpur Nagar,
Noida, Thakurdwara, Bijnor, Nighasan, Balha, Sirathu, Rohaniya, Hamirpur,
Charkhari and Lucknow East. All of these were vacated by BJP MLAs who won the
Lok Sabha elections.

Vadodara
LS seat

In
Gujarat, Narendra Modi’s successor as Chief Minister Anandiben Patel faces her
first big test in by-elections being held today for Vadodara LS seat, vacated
by Modi, and in nine Assembly constituencies.This is the first election in Gujarat
in more than 12 years that BJP would be fighting without its star campaigner
Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bypolls
in AP

Polling
began on a swift note for the by-election to Medak Lok Sabha seat in Telangana
and Nandigama (SC) Assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh.By-election is being held in
Medak as the Lok Sabha seat was vacated by Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K
Chandrasekhar Rao upon becoming Chief Minister of the newly-formed Telangana
state.

Medak LS
seat, once part of undivided Andhra Pradesh and now in Telangana, witnesses a
triangular contest between ruling TRS, BJP, and Congress. The bypolls were
necessitated as TRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao vacated the
seat.On the other hand, TDP is trying hard to prove it won’t be easy to conquer
its bastion Nandigama assembly in Krishna district where it is in a direct
fight against Congress. The by-election was held due to the death of TDP MLA
Tangirala Prabhakara Rao within days of his victory.Voting was also underway in
the lone insurgency-hit Antagarh assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh where
only two candidates are in the fray.

West
Bengal

In West
Bengal, Chowringhee and Dakshin Bashirhat Assembly seats had been won by CPI(M)
and Trinamool Congress for which the bypolls are a crucial test for Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee’s popularity.

Buyoed by
its modest gains in Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal and relying on Modi’s
charisma, BJP hopes to wrest the Bashirhat Dakshin seat from Trinamool and make
its debut in the State Assembly.Assembly elections will be held in Maharashtra
and Haryana in a single phase on October 15.

6) Saradha
chit fund scam: CBI grills TMC MP Srinjoy Bose:

The noose
appears to be tightening around many prominent leaders of the ruling Trinamool
Congress in West Bengal in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund
scam.A day after CBI arrested a leader of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool
Congress and former director general of the state armed police Rajat Majumdar
in connection with the Saradha scam, the agency on Wednesday summoned and
questioned the ruling party's Raja Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose.

As per
reports, the TMC MP was questioned at the CBI office here in connection with
his alleged role in the scam. Majumdar,
the first Trinamool leader to be arrested by the CBI, in the scandal,
complained of chest pain soon after being taken into custody and was rushed to
the state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital.

Majumdar,
who occupied crucial posts like inspector general (Railways) during his long
Indian Police Service (IPS) career, was the third arrest made by the
investigating agency in West Bengal in the scam, which was said to have spread
across various states and whose monetary value could well run into over
Rs.10,000 crore.While suspended Trinamool parliamentarian Kunal Ghosh was
arrested by the Special Investigation Team of the state police last year, a
minister, several parliamentarians and close associates of powerful leaders of
the party have been grilled by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Probing
the scandal on the Supreme Court's orders, the CBI earlier quizzed Majumdar for
the second time during the day. He faced the first round of questioning Aug
23.Majumdar had worked as a security advisor for the tainted Saradha Group
after his retirement as a police officer in 2008. The arrest was made Tuesday
evening after three hours of questioning.

"He
has been arrested on grounds of conspiracy, cheating and misappropriation of
funds," said a CBI spokesperson. The investigative agency has registered
four first information reports in the scam.

Majumdar's
name cropped up after journalist-turned-Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Ghosh, now
behind bars, accused him of swindling crores of rupees in organising a cultural
programme in Las Vegas in 2012.

Majumdar
joined the Trinamool in recent years, and served as the party's poll observer
for Birbhum district for the 2013 panchayat election. On Aug 14, CBI sleuths
raided Majumdar's residence and seized many documents.Majumdar, who has been
denying all allegations against him, will be presented before a court
Wednesday.The CBI Tuesday also grilled Kolkata businessman Asif Khan - a former
convenor of Trinamool's Uttar Pradesh unit. Khan, editor of Bengali daily
Aajker Kalom, later told media persons that he came on his own and would fully
cooperate with the CBI probe.He faced CBI grilling Monday too. Meanwhile, the ED
during the day questioned Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Ahmed Hassan Imran over
his alleged financial transactions with the Saradha Group.

Imran is
the editor of Kalom, a vernacular daily that was owned by the Saradha Group
till 2013 when it was bought by the Kalom Welfare Association. Launched as a
magazine, Kalom turned into a daily newspaper after the group bought it in
2011.The ED quizzed Imran Aug 25 for the first time. The agency earlier quizzed
actor-turned Trinamool parliamentarian Mithun Chakraborty and West Bengal
Textile Minister Shyamapada Mukherjee in connection with the scam.The Saradha
scam came to light in April 2013 after the group downed shutters without
repaying lakhs of investors, who had parked their hard earned money in the
group's companies, lured by the promise of astronomically high returns.The
scandal, said to be the biggest to hit the state, led to a spate of suicides by
agents of the Saradha Group and depositors who lost their life's savings. The
opposition as also Ghosh have turned the heat on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
over the scam.

Ghosh
told journalists that Banerjee was the biggest beneficiary of the propaganda
unleashed by Saradha Media, which he headed, and said the chief minister should
be jointly interrogated with him and scam kingpin Sudipta Sen. Sen and his top
aides were arrested from Jammu and Kashmir in April last year.The Congress has
demanded Banerjee's resignation in the wake of allegations that the railways
had entered into a joint venture with Saradha Tours and Travels when she headed
the ministry. The BJP and the Communist Party of India-Marxist have also been
attacking Banerjee on the issue

Sports News
This Week:

1) India
sets target of 70-75 medals at Asian Games:

Indian
officials aren't letting a string of administrative controversies or the
withdrawal of some leading athletes dampen their expectations at the Asian
Games."We've selected only those who have a chance to win medals,"
Jiji Thomson, the director-general of the Sports Authority of India (SAI),
said. "It will be realistic to expect 70-75 medals."The Indian team
collected 65 medals at Guangzhou four years ago.

While
recent controversies may not have a bearing on the results at Incheon when the
games start next week, the late announcement of the final contingent did cause
some anxiety. So did the unavailability of some leading athletes including
wrestler Sushil Kumar, boxer Vijender Singh and tennis player Somdev
Devvarman.Thomson's department, which reports to the sports ministry, caused a
stir recently when it advised a drastic pruning of the Asian Games contingent
initially proposed by the Indian Olympic Association.

The IOA,
which returned to the international fold in February after a 14-month ban for
electing tainted officials, recommended 662 athletes and 280 officials in a
contingent of 942, but the list was cut down to 516 athletes and 163 support
staff for a total of 679.

Though
the decision was praised in some quarters — athletes have sometimes complained
of being accompanied by unwanted officials — the delay in announcing the final
squad was widely criticized and some sports federations also resented the
cutbacks."This kind of ad-hoc decision-making is not in the interest of
sports," Hockey India secretary-general Narendra Batra said. "These
decisions show that the people taking them don't have an understanding of what
is required for competing in the international arena."Compounding the
problem of team selection was the world boxing body, AIBA, deregistering the
Indian federation. Elections on Sept. 11 for a new entity — Boxing India — were
likely to be ratified and the boxers could be allowed to represent India rather
than compete as independent athletes.

Vijender,
a bronze medalist at the Beijing Olympics, withdrew due to an injury but
five-time women's world champion Mary Kom made a comeback after missing out on
selection in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.Wrestler Kumar, India's only
two-time individual Olympic medalist, withdrew from the Asian Games to
concentrate on the Rio Olympics in 2016. But London Olympics bronze winner
Yogeshwar Dutt is confident India will still do well.The withdrawals will hit
hardest in tennis. Devvarman, who won the singles and doubles golds at
Guangzhou, was among a group of players who decided to forego the Asian Games
and concentrate on the pro tennis circuit.Doubles specialist Leander Paes and
Rohan Bopanna also withdrew, meaning India is unlikely to get anywhere near its
count of five medals in the sport in 2010.Rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra, India's
only individual Olympic gold medalist, will have another shot at an elusive
gold at the Asian Games as Indian marksmen hope to win a clutch of medals
despite the presence of renowned Chinese and South Korean shooters.

In
athletics, India's focus will be on discus, with Vikas Gowda in form after
winning this year's Commonwealth gold, while Krishna Poonia and Seema Poonia
both made the women's final at Glasgow.The traditional rivalry with Pakistan in
field hockey always evokes interest and captain Sardar Singh wants nothing less
than gold."We're aiming for the gold as we feel this is a very good chance
for us," Sardar said. "We recently beat South Korea (3-0 at World Cup
match for ninth place) and Pakistan could be rusty as it did not play in some
top tournaments."Pakistan, which has won the Asian Games gold eight times,
did not qualify for this year's World Cup in the Netherlands while it could not
send a team to the Commonwealth Games due to a split in its national Olympic
body.The weight of expectations in badminton will be shared by Olympic bronze
medalist Saina Nehwal along with the younger P.V. Sindhu, who has won bronze
medals at two successive world championships and regarded as apable of breaking
the Chinese stranglehold in the women's competition.India is also be expected
to win medals in archery with former World No. 1 Deepika Kumari leading a squad
that can spring a surprise in individual as well as team events.The indigenous
sport of kabaddi, which now has two professional leagues being organized out of
India, should be a gold for the taking considering India has won it every time
since it was introduced in 1990.But India is again not participating in cricket
and will also miss out on some medals after the scrapping of cue sports, chess
and roller sports, which accounted for eight medals at Guangzhou

2)
Pistorius's next battle to avoid notorious C-Max jail:

After his
conviction on Friday for the negligent killing of his girlfriend Reeva
Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year, Olympic track star Oscar Pistorius's
next battle will be to stay outside the walls of the notorious Pretoria Central
Prison, or C-Max.

The
prison, a forbidding brick and steel edifice with a reputation as the toughest
in South Africa, is just a stone's throw from the High Court where Pistorius's
six-month trial ended with not guilty verdicts on murder charges that carried
certain jail terms.

His
conviction for culpable homicide attracts a maximum 15-year sentence but there
is no minimum, and his defence team will argue that a man with no previous
convictions should not end up in C-Max, where dozens of political dissidents
were detained and executed by the white-minority regime that ran South Africa
until 1994.

South
Africa abolished the death penalty shortly after Nelson Mandela became its
first black president, and the gallows and its execution wing - dubbed
"The Pot" - are now a museum to the atrocities of apartheid.But the
prison's reputation remains undimmed as the worst place in the land - the permanent,
overcrowded home of armed robbers, rapists and murderers, plagued by gang
violence and mental and physical abuse."When you arrive, the big gangs
make their move on you. They have knives and razor blades. Some even carry
guns," said Serge Christiano, an Angolan who spent time in C-Max during
seven years awaiting trial for attempted murder and armed robbery.

"When
new people come in, guys will offer them a cup of tea with a sleeping tablet in
it. When they pass out, they get raped," added Christiano, who was eventually
released without charge.Pedestrians walking past C-Max's gates late at night
often hear the anguished cries of inmates."C-Max is the worst," said
Farouk Meyer, a South African released in February after serving 15 years -
five of them in C-Max - for a double-murder he says to this day was
self-defence.

SEVENTY
TO A CELL

For 23
hours a day, prisoners are kept 70 or more to a cell designed for 35, with
those unable to get a bed sleeping on the floor. Whenever they leave the cell,
even for a shower or to receive a visit, they are cuffed by the wrists and
ankles.

Fittingly
for the 'new' South Africa, nobody gets special treatment - which would be a
daunting prospect for the 27-year-old Pistorius, whose life before Steenkamp's
shooting has been revealed as a decadent world of fast cars, ritzy parties and
glamorous women populated almost exclusively by whites."A lot of guys lose
it. Either you lose it or you become stronger," added Meyer, who said he
kept his head straight by studying law in an attempt to get his conviction
overturned.

The
Department for Correctional Services declined to comment.

If C-Max
represents the toughest of the tough, other prisons in Africa's most advanced
economy are far from soft.

Last
year, the government stepped in and took over the running of the 3,000-inmate
Mangaung maximum security prison from the British security firm G4S after
reports of warders torturing prisoners with electric shocks - something the
firm denied.

According
to the International Centre for Prison Studies, a branch of Britain's
University of Essex, South Africa's prison overcrowding is average by
international standards at 128 percent - higher than in France, but lower than
Greece.

But an
inspection report submitted to parliament last year deplored the level of
prison violence and said organised gangs and overcrowding were both
substantially to blame.Speculation has swirled about whether Pistorius's status
as a double amputee would allow him to secure privileged treatment, separate
from the majority of 'ordinary' prisoners.

NO
SPECIAL TREATMENT

However,
having spent much of his professional life fighting to compete as an
able-bodied athlete, as he did in the 2012 London Olympics, where he reached
the semi-final of the men's 400 metres, it would be quite a reversal to argue
for special treatment if he were to find himself behind bars.The Department for
Correctional Services did not answer questions about disabled prisoner
policies, but Therina Wentzel, head of the National Council for Persons with
Physical Disabilities of South Africa, said things had improved dramatically
since the 1980s, when a prison term for a disabled person could amount to a
death sentence.

She said
that while the basic philosophy was to treat all prisoners the same wherever
possible, authorities had a large amount of discretion: "It really depends
on the circumstances, on the individual."

After a
high-profile trial, the African National Congress government would be keen to
avoid any suggestion that Pistorius might receive rich man's - let alone white
man's - treatment.This is especially true after public anger this year at the
release on parole of the 'Waterkloof Four', four young white men from Pretoria
who were sentenced in 2005 to 12 years in jail for murdering a homeless
man.Shortly after they walked free, dressed in designer clothes and waving
cheerily to reporters, cellphone video emerged of two of the group enjoying a
pre-release party, complete with expensive whisky, in their cells.

The pair
were promptly re-arrested, and the prisons minister at the time, Sibusiso
Ndebele, said the authorities would not tolerate "anarchy" behind
bars, rejecting the widespread belief that wealthy whites in particular can
still buy a cushy ride.

3)
Croatia's Marin Cilic swept past Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-3 6-3 6-3 to win the
US Openand reach the pinnacle of the sport one year after a doping ban
kept him out of the year's final grand slam. The big-serving Croatian
overwhelmed a weary Nishikori in one hour, 54 minutes to clinch a ruthless
victory and deny his 10th-seeded opponent's bid to become the first Asian man
to win a grand slam. With the win, 14th seed Cilic becomes the first Croatian
to win one of the sport's four grand slam championships since his coach Goran
Ivanisevic celebrated a Wimbledon victory in 2001

4) Sania
Mirza (R) of India and Bruno Soares (2nd R) of Brazil celebratewith the
trophy after defeating Santiago Gonzalez (L) of Mexico and Abigail Spears (2nd
L) of the United States to win the mixed doubles final on Day Twelve of the
2014 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September
5, 2014 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City

5)
Williams wins 18th grand slam title:

Serena
Williams of the U.S. embraces her trophy after defeating Caroline Wozniacki of
Denmark in their women's singles finals match at the 2014 U.S. Open tennis
tournament in New York, September 7, 2014

Book of
This Week:

The
Immigrants :by Howard Fast

A love
story of tremendous beauty...a tale of passion, adventure, and ambition set
against the streets of San Francisco, America's most romantic city.

Dan
Lavette, the son of an Italian fisherman, battles from the rubble of the San
Francisco earthquake to build a fortune in the shipping industry. Rising to
success through hard work and a loveless marriage to the daughter of the city's
wealthiest family, he risks it all for the exotic beauty of a woman who shares
his secret and scandalous passion.

From Nob
Hill to the harbor, San Francisco comes alive through three immigrant families
-- Italian, Irish, and Chinese -- whose intertwining dreams are propelled by
the emotional events of America's coming of age...

Howard
Fast (1914–2003) was one of the most prolific American writers
of the twentieth century. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works
of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. The son of immigrants, Fast
grew up in New York City and published his first novel upon finishing high
school in 1933. In 1950, his refusal to provide the United States Congress with
a list of possible Communist associates earned him a three-month prison
sentence. During his incarceration, Fast wrote one of his best-known novels,
Spartacus (1951). Throughout his long career, Fast matched his commitment to
championing social justice in his writing with a deft, lively storytelling
style.